Time to head to the gym for Jack Whitehall

ENTERTAINMENT writer Marion McMullen finds out about baring all on TV as 23-year-old comedian Jack Whitehall prepares to bring his new stand-up show, Let’s Not Speak Of This Again, to Coventry’s Warwick Arts Centre on Sunday.

ENTERTAINMENT writer Marion McMullen finds out about baring all on TV as 23-year-old comedian Jack Whitehall prepares to bring his new stand-up show, Let’s Not Speak Of This Again, to Coventry’s Warwick Arts Centre on Sunday. Box office 024 7652 4524.

Jack is currently making his TV acting debut in Channel 4’s Fresh Meat. The comedy drama sees him playing ladies’ man JP in the comedy drama about freshers at university.

Was your first acting role as you expected?

I really enjoyed it, I mean it was hard work. It’s very different to doing stand-up, because you go on set and don’t know if you are any good. I had to adjust to that and accept that is the way it works but I enjoyed it. It was a fun challenge.

Were you a ladies' man like JP at university?

No. I went out with a girl in uni for quite a long time. JP doesn’t have a girlfriend, he’s basically just trying to give his end away.

Is it fun to play someone like that?

It is fun. I lived with a guy at university who was basically JP. He was a friend of mine from Eton who I based some of my portrayal on – hopefully he won’t realise.

Was it really you baring all in the bathroom scene?

That was me. I had a strange conversation with the make-up department asking if I wanted to wax my a***. I didn’t know so I just showed them my a*** and they sat there and decided they would wax it. There’s quite a lot of being half naked in the series.

Are you comfortable with that?

Well, I didn’t go to the gym. I thought it would be all right, I don’t have that bad a body but then you see it on the screen and you think, ‘Oh my God, what are those chicken legs and hairy a***?’ It’s not good; I definitely don’t think I’m going to be Torso Of The Week anytime soon. Next series I’m definitely going to go down to the gym and make myself a bit better.

Did it feel strange to be scripted?

It is a new discipline. It’s slightly weird doing other people’s work when you are so used to doing your own stuff, but the scripts are so good and I feel so confident in them, which makes it easier to be regimented to stick to the script and not go off on your own tangent.